NRC as the co-coordinating agency will work alongside Government of Lebanon’s sector lead ministries and coordinating UN agencies to support the overall coordination of the sector in order to respond effectively to the needs of vulnerable populations. It will also ensure coordination with other sectors, as part of the Inter Sector and across relevant response frameworks in Lebanon. NGO sector co-coordinating agency responsibilities are outlined below, informed by current good practice on co-leads collated both at the global level and in Lebanon, including under the LCRP. 

The NGO sector co-coordinator has an overarching duty to all partners within the Shelter sector, to act as a representative of the sector as a whole, rather than solely as a representative of their organisation. The co-coordinating agency works in close coordination with the Ministry of Social Affairs and UNHCR to agree on specific tasks and the division of labour.

The Shelter and Settlements Sector Co-coordinator will dedicate 60% of their time to shelter sector specific responsibilities and 40% of their time to NRC shelter and settlements program. 

Generic responsibilities: 

1. Adhere and comply to NRC policies, guidance, and procedures.

2. Facilitation and representation in national and sub-national meetings.

3. Resource mobilization and field implementation support.

4. Development and implementation of strategy.

5. Supporting effective inter-response area operational planning and response.

6. Enhance cross-sector information sharing and best practices including on harmonized sector-specific approaches to implementation.

7. Develop and maintain appropriate partnerships as part of the NRC shelter and settlement programming.

8. Ensure that NRC’s related activities are implemented within NRC’s Protection mainstreaming guidelines and report any breaches/concerns to the line manager and/or focal point for proper action.

Specific responsibilities 

• Convene and co-facilitate relevant meetings (including sector working groups, core groups and relevant sectoral or cross-sectoral technical meetings). Ensure that sector meetings are well-managed and actioned and results-oriented, with decisions clearly communicated to relevant partners and stakeholders. 

• Represent the sector including at sectoral meetings, in the Inter-Sector and Inter-Agency coordination fora and in external stakeholder engagement, as appropriate.

• Maintain appropriate links and dialogue with sector partners and the national and international NGO forums. 

• Identify and establish contact with relevant external stakeholders and representatives of affected populations.

• Support the outreach to non-participating national NGOs with a shelter/ housing mandate to increase participation in the shelter response. The sector will also seek the support of the Inter-Agency team to identify opportunities for advancing localization and enhancing the role of national NGOs within the work of the sector. 

• Monitor sectoral funding gaps across response areas.

• Support the Inter-sector in their resource mobilization efforts on behalf of the sector.

• Facilitate the identification of sector-specific advocacy messages and track their implementation as part of the Inter-sector’s advocacy strategy.

• Collaborate in the development of the overall sector strategy and ensure the strategy complements government policies and plans, including the sector annual workplan and monitoring framework.

• Participate in relevant task forces as required to support development of cross-cutting themes/ issues (e.g. GBV, conflict sensitivity, accountability to affected populations and protection. mainstreaming).

• Support in ensuring that the sector covers the identified and evolving sector needs of all vulnerable target populations, including through supporting effective needs and vulnerability analysis among sector partners. This includes:

• Agreeing on common needs criteria, definitions and benchmarks.

• Harmonizing needs assessment processes, tools, standards and indicators.

• Harmonizing LCRP programme monitoring, reporting and report synthesis.

• Exploring opportunities for multi-sector programming interventions. 

• Champion the use of participatory and community-based approaches in the planning and implementation of sectoral interventions, as a key value-add of an NGO sector co-coordinating agency.

• Support in forming Temporary Technical Committees (TTCs) tasked to develop technical guidelines and standard operating procedures for harmonized implementation of shelter interventions, and to explore innovative approaches to addressing the shelter needs of vulnerable populations.

• Facilitate discussion and agreement on the use of common standards and tools among sector partners. Promote awareness of and adherence to relevant policy guidelines, codes of conduct and examples of good practice. 

• Support field coordinators to sensitize and ensure harmonization of sector-specific approaches across response areas.

• Facilitate proactive information-sharing between the LCRP Shelter Sector and the 3RF Housing Sector the Shelter Sector to enable effective inter-sector cross-response area coordination.

• Work with sector partners to contribute to contingency planning and emergency preparedness efforts for the sector, ensuring adequate participation in Inter-Sector business continuity planning, contingency planning and emergency preparedness activities.

• Consolidate and highlight information on needs, gaps and capacity to support effective inter-response area operational planning and their related responses (e.g provide feedback on assessments and responses targeting vulnerable Lebanese).

• Facilitate adequate reporting and information sharing, both within the sector and with other sectors through Inter-Sector coordination mechanisms.

• Facilitate discussion of information gaps and propose products/ processes to address these gaps.

• Analyse lessons learned/ best practices of implementation approaches.

• Guide sector IM response monitoring and reporting.

Critical interfaces

• Shelter and Settlements Sector Coordinator and lead agency

• Inter-Sector and Inter-Agency Coordinators and agencies

• Relevant external stakeholders including local authorities and representatives of affected populations.

Scale and scope of position:

Staff: N/A

Stakeholders: Sector, Inter-Sector and Inter-Agency Coordinators and agencies, International and national shelter actors, local authorities, community representatives. 

Budgets: This position is not a budget holder

Information: NRC People, NRC Visuals, NRC Intranet, GORS, UNIT4, 0365, MS Teams, DocuSign, KAYA

Legal or compliance: Compliance with NRC CoC, Terms of Employment, NRC Security policies and NRC Lebanon related regulations. 

Generic professional competencies for this position: 

• Bachelor or Master’s degree (architecture, engineering, urban planning or other relevant fields)
• Minimum 3 years in shelter and settlements sector in humanitarian or development sectors
• Previous experience and technical competence in cluster and/or sector coordination is highly desired
• Ability to contribute actively and meaningfully to complex analysis, strategy and planning
• Understanding of international humanitarian response and coordination mechanisms, humanitarian program cycle (HPC), Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), Country Based Pool Fund (CBPF) and Appeal processes
• Fluency in Arabic and English, both written and verbal 

Context related skills, knowledge and experience:

• Expertise in the implementation of urban shelter interventions. This includes but is not limited to multi-sectoral interventions with the ability to support the revision of the technical guidelines on the Shelter sector’s approach to area-based implementation and coordination.

• Expertise in gathering and/or using existing multisectoral data to analyse aspects of the local context relevant to shelter conditions, including population characteristics, demographic pressure on basic services, housing stock quality, housing market prices, governance characteristics and intercommunity tensions.